I work at Best Buy now... in the Geek Squad... I see all brands come in with problems. All the components are pretty much the same in each laptop. The Dells are the worst though. I personally like Lenovos. At my other job, I use an IBM ThinkPad T40 and its great! Weighs aroung 5 lbs and I love it! You can't go wrong with a Lenovo/IBM. My other favorite lower cost option is a Gateway. Toshibas are great too.